Above-Average Development

By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D

Q: I want to ask if my daughter is advanced
for her age? She just turned 1 last June. I really didn't focus much on
her ability, until she reached her age now. Her pediatrician said before
that her emotional intelligence was advance, we didn't believe at first.
When she had her second vaccine, she cried like a pig. And after several
months of not going back to her pediatrician, we would thought she forgot about
her past experience. But we were surprised when she cried out at the
sight of her pediatrician preparing a syringe!

She started walking at 10 months. We never taught her how to walk, but she self taught herself.
She started talking early compared to her siblings. She started saying
daddy, sister, at 6 months, now at 1, she's saying hello. She gets bored
of playing her own toys, but enjoys listening to nursery rhymes songs at
watching educational programs on computer. She has a good memory when I
tried to play hide objects with her. She's super alert and you can
understand an instruction like please get my cell phone or please hand me
the remote. Please advise me since I am having trouble understanding her
tantrums lately.

A:
From your very brief description, it appears that your little one is
developing a little quicker than the average child. However, it is not
enough to determine how much more advanced. The examples given are quite
limited and not sufficient to gauge her cognitively.

However, it appears that she is a very bright child with a good memory
and ability to absorb information at a rather higher speed compared to
her age-mates. I would advise you to monitor her progress and keep
exposing her to new learning materials in the form of play. She will get
bored once she has mastered something so you need to always keep
introducing her to new activities. Start exposing her to books - read
them to her for now. You will find that she would quickly learn that
books supply information and that would stimulate her intellectually.

As for activities, please read the previous newsletters to determine
suitable educational activities for her to help stimulate her learning.
Having a high emotional intelligence may make her very sensitive;
therefore she may cry quite easily at little things. All children throw
tantrums for various reasons. It is unclear why she is throwing
tantrums, as I need to understand her environment when she does so.

For now, I suggest reading up on advanced children and gain more
understanding to determine if she is indeed gifted. If she is, there are
many things that can be done to help her maximize her potential. If she
does not show further signs of giftedness, she still needs to be
nurtured with as much educational learning as possible to help develop
her intellectual ability. At this stage, whether gifted or bright, most
activities suitable for gifted children would apply to any child,
especially if the child is bright. So, keep exploring and exposing her
to a variety of activities to stimulate her. Wishing you all the best!